Steelers running back Najee Harris’ start to the 2022 season has been a disappointment.
There’s no way around that. There’s no sugarcoating it.
Through Pittsburgh’s first six games, Harris has rushed for just 264 yards, averaging 3.2 yards per carry.
But there is some optimism within the Steelers facility that Harris could be close to breaking out, and that he’s certainly trending in the right direction after missing the majority of training camp and the preseason with a Lisfranc sprain in his foot.
“You look at Najee’s health, he was out in camp and he’s coming along now,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada said Thursday. “You saw him being a little bit more downhill, a little bit more decisive. The production is not where we want it, but I don’t think I’m ever going to come up here and say it’s where we want it. But it’s not where we want it.”
Harris agrees with Canada in all senses regarding the run game, particularly that his extended time off prohibited him from meshing with an offensive line that went through some change this offseason.
“Yeah, it's the time I missed,” he said Friday. “It's a whole new line when you go, well, whatever many games we played last year, and you try to make plays.
“Me missing all the weeks from this (past) camp, it all falls on me. Just trusting the o-line… they’ve done an amazing job this year. It just falls on me. So I take full responsibility with that. I have been more decisive.”
The Steelers, as a team, are averaging just 3.6 yards per carry this year, down from 3.9 a year ago, and good for the fifth-worst mark in the NFL.
Harris, who rushed for 42 yards on 14 carries Sunday against Tampa, reiterated that he's a primary reason for that number being so low.
“I play a big factor in all that,” he said. “So just me studying more and growing. I think that we're going to keep going forward. We did good last week for the team that they have, really good guys up front and everybody in their secondary, they're all good tacklers and I think we handled that pretty well. This week is another challenge.”
There have been times this season where it seemed that Harris’ indecisiveness ended up costly. He missed some holes, and therefore missed out on some large gains. His longest run this season was just 16 yards.
While he shoulders the blame, his linemen also admit that they’ve been at fault, too. That said, a cohesion seems to be forming.
"It's not only us five gelling up front, but also him learning our tendencies and learning how to hit things and learning different schemes,” offensive tackle Dan Moore Jr. said. “I think he's really getting a grasp of it. He's really getting confident.
“You can see by the way he runs, by the way he puts his head down. We love it. He gives us energy. He's running hard, we are blocking hard for him. I think it's a great recipe."
Another area that Harris has been lacking to produce in is the passing game. At times, last season, he was Ben Roethlisberger’s favorite passing target. He caught 74 balls for 467 yards in 2021, including a 14-catch, 102-yard game against the Bengals last September.
But, without Roethlisberger, those numbers have dropped, too. He has caught 15 passes through six games, about half of his average from last season.
“There's going to be a lot more opportunities,” said Harris, who did catch a touchdown from Kenny Pickett against Tampa Sunday. “But I don't call the plays and I can't control that. I just control what I control. But even in practice, I work in the pass game a lot. I'm in the routes a lot, I'm good in the pass game. It's not my decision. I don't call the plays.”
Harris, a first-round pick in 2021, racked up 1,667 total yards last year, including 1,200 on the ground. That was behind a very poor offensive line that was graded among the worst in football.
This line has seemingly been slightly better, yet Harris’ numbers are worse. He is on pace for 949 yards of total offense this year. But he’s hoping to change that, and hoping that the rust that accumulated during August and September has finally worn off.
“When you go 18 games last year with making plays in other ways, you tend to try to think it's going to be the same thing next year,” he said. “It’s just me trusting the line again. It's all me. It's all on me.”